Tone Deaf Test
This tone deaf test plays two tones and asks whether the second was higher or lower. The gap gets smaller as you answer right, until it finds the smallest pitch difference you can hear.
Use headphones in a quiet room if you can. Keys: ↓ lower, ↑ higher, R replay, Space start.
Your result
How the tone deaf test works
This tone deaf test is a pitch test that measures how small a difference in pitch you can hear: two tones play, you say whether the second was higher or lower, and the gap shrinks until it finds your limit in cents. Press Start. Two short tones play, one after the other. Press Higher if the second tone was higher, Lower if it was lower. On a computer use the ↑ and ↓ arrow keys; R plays the pair again. You have to answer every time, so if you are not sure, take your best guess.
The first gap is 200 cents, two semitones. Each right answer at the start halves it. After your first mistake the test slows down: two right answers in a row make the gap smaller, one mistake makes it bigger. So the gap closes in on the size where you are right most of the time and wrong some of the time. Every change from shrinking to growing, or back, is a turn. After 8 turns the test ends and averages the gaps at the last 6 turns. That number, in cents, is your result. The pitch of the pair changes every time, so you cannot answer by remembering one tone.
It takes a few minutes. Headphones in a quiet room give a truer result than a phone speaker in a busy room.
Reading your result
A cent is a hundredth of a semitone, and a semitone is the step from one piano key to the next. So a result of 50 cents means you heard differences of half a semitone, and 100 cents is one full semitone. The chart under the result shows the gap on every trial, with your answers as dots.
How fine human pitch hearing is varies greatly from person to person, and also with the frequency, loudness and tone color of the sound. The Wikipedia article on the cent quotes one author putting the smallest difference people can hear at about 5 to 6 cents. Your number may be above or below that, and it may change from one try to the next, especially on your first run. To hear what a few cents sound like, play two close tones on the tone generator, for example 440 Hz and 443 Hz.
What tone deafness (amusia) is
The medical name for tone deafness is amusia. A 2017 study by Isabelle Peretz and Dominique Vuvan (Prevalence of congenital amusia, European Journal of Human Genetics) describes congenital amusia as a lifelong musical disorder. The often-quoted figure of 4% of people came from a single test from 1980. Their own study of 20,000 participants, using three objective tests and a questionnaire, found a prevalence of only 1.5%. They also found that the difficulty was not reduced by musical training, and that 46% of first-degree relatives of people with amusia were affected too, which suggests it is hereditary.
The Wikipedia article on amusia separates two kinds: congenital amusia, present from birth, and acquired amusia, which follows brain damage. It describes congenital amusia as mainly a difficulty with fine-grained pitch discrimination. In the first documented case, the person could barely detect a pitch change as large as two semitones.
What this test can and cannot tell you
This is a pitch hearing check, not a diagnosis. The same article explains that diagnosing amusia takes several tools, described in the Montreal Protocol for Identification of Amusia. At its center is the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia, six subtests covering pitch contour, scales, intervals, rhythm, meter and memory, and the protocol also rules out other conditions. A single run of higher or lower cannot do that.
If your result is well under 100 cents, you can hear the difference between neighboring notes. Whether your voice lands on those notes is a separate question: try the pitch detector to see the note you sing, and ear training to practice intervals. To find the notes you can sing comfortably, take the vocal range test.
If your result stays at a semitone or more after a few calm tries with headphones, you are not alone, and it says nothing about your worth as a listener. If you also notice trouble with hearing in everyday life, a hearing check with a doctor or audiologist is the right next step.
More for singers: Vocal Range Test · Pitch Detector · Ear Training · Perfect Pitch Test · Note Reading
Questions
Am I tone deaf?
One test cannot say. If you can reliably hear differences well under a semitone (100 cents) here, your pitch hearing is working. Tone deafness (congenital amusia) is diagnosed with a set of research tests, and a 2017 study of 20,000 people put it at about 1.5% of the population.
I can't sing in tune. Does that mean I'm tone deaf?
Not necessarily. This test checks hearing, not singing. If you hear small differences here, the notes are reaching you, and matching them with your voice is a skill you can practice with the pitch detector and ear training.
Why does my result change each time?
Attention, background noise, speakers versus headphones and simply learning the task all move the number. Take the test two or three times and look at your smallest steady result.
What is a cent?
A cent is one hundredth of a semitone. There are 100 cents between neighboring piano keys and 1,200 in an octave.